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University of Southern California
NO. 13 __LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA WED., AUGUST 19, 1970
MARC FELLER, formerly with the Barnsdall Junior Art Center, programs the sounds that will flow through the nearly-completed sound tunnel.
Feller has been working on the project almost constantly for a year and is the chief operator.
At bottom ri g h t Carol Dumond, a music student, sits inside the tunnel while sounds move around her.
Photos by Linda Biber and Melody Gillard
Nearly-finished sound tunnel has no home
Take taped music, a small computer, two-and-a-quarter million electronic componets, 200 speakers, steel, foam, wood and over a year's worth of steady, energetic labor; put them all together and what do you have?
A sound tunnel—one that is capable of spiraling music around your body, sending a note past one side of your head and returning it on the other, floating music everywhere until it totally surrounds you and becomes your whole environment.
At least it could become such a phenomenon if it had a place to call home.
Since last August, when many of the parts for the sound tunnel were brought piece-by-piece to the university from the Barnsdall Junior Art Center, music students, grads and other enthused people have been tirelessly assembling the complicated toy in the basement of the University Methodist Church.
But now that the tunnel is nearly ready for public display and enjoyment, the ensemble must be moved. Its present quarters are needed for office space.
Rick Lesemann, a lecturer in music theory and composition and a 490 instructor working on his Ph.D. in music composition, who has been working on the tunnel since last August, said he hopes a place can be found on campus to house the 60-foot long structure and its accompanying components. If not, the group will have to start looking for facilities off campus, which may not be as accessible to students.
The idea to get the sound tunnel sprang from the 490 course which Lesemann teaches. A student, Peter Bergman, heard that the tunnel would have to be moved ont of its former displav area at Barnsdall and arrangements were made to bring it to USC.
Although the tunnel is primarily designed for sensory enjoyment, it (is also a handy instrument for composers who want to learn about special sound, Marc Feller, one of the key workers, said. Feller was formerly with the Barnsdall Center and has worked on the project nearly 40 hours per week for a year with extremely little pay. He connected the hundreds of electrical components in the spacial control unit almost single-handidly.
“The spacial control unit is a small, friendly, harmless computer that won’t replace your job,” Feller said. “It gives the information to the amplifiers to tell the speakers when each one should turn off and on.”
The speakers can be regulated so the music flowing into the tunnel creates its own pattern and rhythm. The tunnel itself has end caps and a charcoal-activated filter which eliminates all scents from the air. When the caps and filters are on. and if the person in the tunnel doesn’t touch the walls, the only sensory perception he has is sound.
The tunnel can have up to nine tracks of music moving through it at the same time. The melody of a song can be spiraling slowly around the listener, while the rhythm moves rapidly in a linear motion.
Feller called the device a performance machine saying that it can be viewed as an instrument, like a violin, for performance and composition; as an experimentation device dealing with the nature of perception, and as an on-going experiment in new techniques of audio-sound control.
“This .is the first piece of electric music equipment connectcd with the Music Department,” Carol Dumond. a music major.
said. “It’s totally unsuited for traditional music, however, you can play around with traditional music within the tunnel and make new pieces with it.
“For instance, you can blend different pieces in various ways, revolve them around each other and work out various spacial relationships.”
Lesemann said the tunnel is not the only output for the electronic components nor is the completion and perfection of the tunnel the group’s only goal.
“The idea is to expand into a live - performance multi - media project and perhaps put together a show that could go on the road,” he said. “It can be much more than a static thing like the tunnel.”
Group forms to demand arrest of Socialist Party attackers
Prompted by attacks by Cuban exiles on the Socialist Workers' Party headquarters in May, a committee has been formed to put public pressure on the Police Department to assure arrest and conviction of the guilty parties.
Called the Citizens’ Committee for the Right of Free Political Expression, the group has gained the support of many prominent people, including a senator, movie actress, laborers and people in the social services.
On May 27 a group of men, thought to be anti-Castro Cuban exiles, attacked the Socialist Workers Party headquarters. Sally Whicker, one of the workers in the office at the time of the attack, said first three or four Cubans, all armed, came in. Then more came in until there were about 14 men in the room. The people in the headquarters were forced to lie on the ground, were tied up, and the building was set on fire.
The workers escaped without serious injuries but their files were stolen and the mimeograph machine was broken, Miss Whicker said. The attack took place just before the primary election. An estimated $10,000 damage was done.
Similar attacks were made on the Haymarket, April 13, and the Ashgrove, June 6.
Concern over the incidents arose when many people felt the police were not doing enough to apprehend the attackers. Three men were arrested as they were leaving the scene of the Ashgrove crime and another was identified in a police lineup. They were arraigned July 22.
“It was just a matter of chance that the police caught the three men after the Ashgrove attack,” Miss Whicker said. “The police haven’t done anything as far as going into the community to find out who did it. We’re just not going to be content until all of them are caught.”
The committee has broad-based support; many of the supporters do not necessarily agree with the philosophy of the Socialist Workers Party. But the incident is viewed as more than just an attack on one organization.
“We are supposed to be living in a democracy —looking at different ideas,” Don Beckler, a member of the commitee, said. “Attacks like these are an attack on everybody’s right to make decisions on the issues of the day. It is an attack on all ideas for change and an attack on all civil liberties. The supporters realize this.”

University of Southern California
NO. 13 __LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA WED., AUGUST 19, 1970
MARC FELLER, formerly with the Barnsdall Junior Art Center, programs the sounds that will flow through the nearly-completed sound tunnel.
Feller has been working on the project almost constantly for a year and is the chief operator.
At bottom ri g h t Carol Dumond, a music student, sits inside the tunnel while sounds move around her.
Photos by Linda Biber and Melody Gillard
Nearly-finished sound tunnel has no home
Take taped music, a small computer, two-and-a-quarter million electronic componets, 200 speakers, steel, foam, wood and over a year's worth of steady, energetic labor; put them all together and what do you have?
A sound tunnel—one that is capable of spiraling music around your body, sending a note past one side of your head and returning it on the other, floating music everywhere until it totally surrounds you and becomes your whole environment.
At least it could become such a phenomenon if it had a place to call home.
Since last August, when many of the parts for the sound tunnel were brought piece-by-piece to the university from the Barnsdall Junior Art Center, music students, grads and other enthused people have been tirelessly assembling the complicated toy in the basement of the University Methodist Church.
But now that the tunnel is nearly ready for public display and enjoyment, the ensemble must be moved. Its present quarters are needed for office space.
Rick Lesemann, a lecturer in music theory and composition and a 490 instructor working on his Ph.D. in music composition, who has been working on the tunnel since last August, said he hopes a place can be found on campus to house the 60-foot long structure and its accompanying components. If not, the group will have to start looking for facilities off campus, which may not be as accessible to students.
The idea to get the sound tunnel sprang from the 490 course which Lesemann teaches. A student, Peter Bergman, heard that the tunnel would have to be moved ont of its former displav area at Barnsdall and arrangements were made to bring it to USC.
Although the tunnel is primarily designed for sensory enjoyment, it (is also a handy instrument for composers who want to learn about special sound, Marc Feller, one of the key workers, said. Feller was formerly with the Barnsdall Center and has worked on the project nearly 40 hours per week for a year with extremely little pay. He connected the hundreds of electrical components in the spacial control unit almost single-handidly.
“The spacial control unit is a small, friendly, harmless computer that won’t replace your job,” Feller said. “It gives the information to the amplifiers to tell the speakers when each one should turn off and on.”
The speakers can be regulated so the music flowing into the tunnel creates its own pattern and rhythm. The tunnel itself has end caps and a charcoal-activated filter which eliminates all scents from the air. When the caps and filters are on. and if the person in the tunnel doesn’t touch the walls, the only sensory perception he has is sound.
The tunnel can have up to nine tracks of music moving through it at the same time. The melody of a song can be spiraling slowly around the listener, while the rhythm moves rapidly in a linear motion.
Feller called the device a performance machine saying that it can be viewed as an instrument, like a violin, for performance and composition; as an experimentation device dealing with the nature of perception, and as an on-going experiment in new techniques of audio-sound control.
“This .is the first piece of electric music equipment connectcd with the Music Department,” Carol Dumond. a music major.
said. “It’s totally unsuited for traditional music, however, you can play around with traditional music within the tunnel and make new pieces with it.
“For instance, you can blend different pieces in various ways, revolve them around each other and work out various spacial relationships.”
Lesemann said the tunnel is not the only output for the electronic components nor is the completion and perfection of the tunnel the group’s only goal.
“The idea is to expand into a live - performance multi - media project and perhaps put together a show that could go on the road,” he said. “It can be much more than a static thing like the tunnel.”
Group forms to demand arrest of Socialist Party attackers
Prompted by attacks by Cuban exiles on the Socialist Workers' Party headquarters in May, a committee has been formed to put public pressure on the Police Department to assure arrest and conviction of the guilty parties.
Called the Citizens’ Committee for the Right of Free Political Expression, the group has gained the support of many prominent people, including a senator, movie actress, laborers and people in the social services.
On May 27 a group of men, thought to be anti-Castro Cuban exiles, attacked the Socialist Workers Party headquarters. Sally Whicker, one of the workers in the office at the time of the attack, said first three or four Cubans, all armed, came in. Then more came in until there were about 14 men in the room. The people in the headquarters were forced to lie on the ground, were tied up, and the building was set on fire.
The workers escaped without serious injuries but their files were stolen and the mimeograph machine was broken, Miss Whicker said. The attack took place just before the primary election. An estimated $10,000 damage was done.
Similar attacks were made on the Haymarket, April 13, and the Ashgrove, June 6.
Concern over the incidents arose when many people felt the police were not doing enough to apprehend the attackers. Three men were arrested as they were leaving the scene of the Ashgrove crime and another was identified in a police lineup. They were arraigned July 22.
“It was just a matter of chance that the police caught the three men after the Ashgrove attack,” Miss Whicker said. “The police haven’t done anything as far as going into the community to find out who did it. We’re just not going to be content until all of them are caught.”
The committee has broad-based support; many of the supporters do not necessarily agree with the philosophy of the Socialist Workers Party. But the incident is viewed as more than just an attack on one organization.
“We are supposed to be living in a democracy —looking at different ideas,” Don Beckler, a member of the commitee, said. “Attacks like these are an attack on everybody’s right to make decisions on the issues of the day. It is an attack on all ideas for change and an attack on all civil liberties. The supporters realize this.”